Dispossessing the wilderness : Indian removal and the making of the national parks /
Mark David Spence.
- viii, 190 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-179) and index.
From common ground -- Looking backward and westward: the "Indian wilderness" in the antebellum era -- The wild West, or toward separate islands -- Before the wilderness: native peoples and Yellowstone -- First wilderness: America's wonderland and Indian removal from Yellowstone National Park -- Backbone of the world: the Blackfeet and the Glacier National Park area -- Crowning the continent: the American wilderness ideal and Blackfeet exclusion from Glacier National Park -- The heart of the Sierras, 1864-1916 -- Yosemite Indians and the National Park ideal, 1916-1969 -- Exceptions and the rule.
"National parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier preserve some of this country's most cherished wilderness landscapes. While visions of pristine, uninhabited nature led to the creation of these parks, they also inspired policies of Indian removal. By contrasting the native histories of these places with the links between Indian policy developments and preservationist efforts, this work examines the complex origins of the national parks and the troubling consequences of the American wilderness ideal. The first study to place national park history within the context of the early reservation era, it details the ways that national parks developed into one of the most important arenas of contention between native peoples and non-Indians in the twentieth century."--Publisher description.
0195118820 9780195118827
98027456
Indians of North America--Relocation--West (U.S.) Wilderness areas--Government policy--United States National parks and reserves--Government policy--United States Nature conservation--Social aspects--United States